Musa and Magicians Duel
Musa* has 2 objectives from Allah:
- Talk to Pharaoh and convince him about Islam
- Ask Pharaoh to free Bani Israel as he has been oppressive
He entered into Pharaoh’s court and made his demands and showed his miracles but Pharaoh didn’t but it.
Egyptian Headlines
We started off with some mock news headlines that we could expect from this propaganda battle between Pharaoh and his elite with the Muslims of the day = Musa* (referenced to today’s tabloid reaction to Muslims):
Egyptian Propaganda
Issues from the discussion of headlines and how the propaganda would be spun!:
- Terror threat as Musa challenges Pharaoh
- No real magic
- Ministry of Magic to train the best / brightest talent
- Society based upon superstitions and magicians (as priests) provide link between gods and people
- Role of magic in Egyptian society to control the people and show godliness of Pharaoh
- Egypt was the most advanced society and yet Bani Israel wanted out of the structure of civilisation
- Musa*’s demands were a direct challenge to the authority of Pharaoh and if Pharaoh accepted demands it would show weakness and his power would collapse
- Bani Israel was a foreign community and kept themselves distinct and easy target for bigotry
- Not too different between how Muslim’s of today are exposed to propaganda when compared to the Muslims at the time of Musa*
Pharaoh was not impressed with the display of miracles and said it was cheap magic and assumed that Musa* wanted to overtake his authority and take control, come to power and overthow the government of the time. Pharaoh knew that he couldn’t give in to Musa* if he wanted to keep his power and control. Hence, this was an existential threat to how society has been run.
[ Just like to day Muslims want to dismantle the oppression of modern governments and implement the Justice of Allah over the people. For example, aim to eradicate poverty and provide basic necessities for all citizens. This would be funded by exploiting natural resources (oil wealth, whatever is mined underground) for the benefit of the whole population not just a few families or elite. ]
Pharaoh rejects the Miracles and summons his magicians
Pharaoh claimed the miracles of the Prophet Musa* were a magician's tricks, and according to his shallow mindset believed that they could be undone by his own magicians. Therefore, he could allegedly defeat the Prophet Musa* to regain his leverage.
He said, "Have you come to us to expel us from our land by means of your magic, Moses? We will bring you magic to match it. So fix a time between us and you which neither we nor you will fail to keep at a place where we can meet halfway."
He (Moses) said, "Your time is the day of the festival. The people should gather in the morning." (Surah Ta-Ha: 57-59)
Musa* chose the festival where most people would be and he knew this as he grew up in this environment. In this way, all the people would hear the message of the Prophet Musa* and witness the defeat of Pharaoh and his magicians. Pharaoh summoned the top magicians from all over Egypt and told them of what ‘tricks’ Musa had which they needed to compete with. They demanded what payment they would receive and they were promised fame, money, power and influence.
(They said) "To bring you all the skilled magicians."
The magicians came to Pharaoh and they asked, "Will we receive a reward if we are the winners?"
He (Pharaoh) said, "Yes, and you will be among those brought near." (Surat al-A'raf: 112-114)
The Battle commences...
The most able magicians of Egypt were brought against the Musa* and the Harun. The Prophet Musa* was asked to decide who should start after he gave them one last chance to change their mind:
Moses said to them, "Woe to you! Do not fabricate lies against Allah or He will annihilate you with His punishment. Fabricators of lies are bound to fail."
They argued among themselves about the matter and had a secret conference.
They said, "These two magicians desire by their magic to expel you from your land and abolish your most excellent way of life, so decide on your scheme and then arrive together in force. He who gains the upper hand today will definitely prosper." (Surah Ta-Ha: 60-64)
They said, "Moses, will you throw or shall we be the first to throw?" He said, "No, you throw!"
And suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him, by their magic, to be slithering about. (Surah Ta-Ha: 65-66)
He (Moses) said, "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on the people's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced an extremely powerful magic. (Surat al-A'raf: 116)
When the (about 70 or so) magicians performed their magic, their ropes and staffs appeared to slither. As Allah informs us in the verse, all were deceived into seeing ropes and staffs as moving by themselves. Just an optical illusion. All the top people in society were invited to show up Musa* but this worked against Pharaoh in the end. With their illusions, the magicians of Pharaoh won the public over.
These are the top magicians in the world at the time and if there was anyone else who could do ‘magic’ they would certainly know about it. Just like the top scientists know each other. The example of Ben Johnson ‘coming from nowhere’ to win the Olympic medal – had to be cheating! Hence, they were confident they would win and ‘magic’ was the thing that the people in society excelled in. Hence, the miracle was all the greater.
They threw down their ropes and staffs and said, "By the might of Pharaoh we are the winners." (Surat ash-Shu'ara: 44)
Moses experienced in himself a feeling of alarm. We said, "Have no fear. You will have the upper hand. Throw down what is in your right hand. It will swallow up their handiwork. Their handiwork is just a magician's trick. Magicians do not prosper wherever they go." (Surah Ta-Ha: 67-69)
When they had thrown, Moses said, "What you have brought is magic. Allah will certainly prove it false. Allah does not uphold the actions of corrupters." (Surah Yunus, 10: 81)
Following these words related in the verses, the Prophet Musa* threw down his staff. The result was terrifying for the magicians. The Prophet Musa’s*staff swallowed the sorcery of Pharaoh's magicians:
We revealed to Moses, "Throw down your staff." And it immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place and what they did was shown to be false. They were defeated then and there, transformed into humbled men. (Surat al-A'raf: 117-119)
Unlike the illusory tricks of magicians, the Prophet Musa* worked a real miracle by his staff. Consequently, contrary to what the unbelievers expected, the Prophet Musa* defeated the magicians. So, everybody witnessed that Allah's promise was true.
Main topic: Scottish Independence
What can link Scottish Independence vote with Islam...?
55% has voted for Scotland to remain as part of the Union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland against 45% who voted for independence. So what can be learned?
- Turnout: The very high turnout of around 90% indicates something important – people are generally disillusioned with main-stream politics / democracy where only 60% vote. Westminster politicians are disconnected from the ordinary people with politicians considered to be amongst the least trustworthy of all.
- Britain has an identity crisis! Does being ‘British’ or ‘Scottish’ depend upon geography, ancestry, tribe, skin colour or language? It is simply not about culture or a shared history. It is about beliefs and values. After 300 years the Union of England and Scotland, capitalism has failed to melt people together in a single nation state into one identity. What do we consider our identity to be here?
- As a Muslim we should be unified as we are One Ummah: One Book, One Allah, One seal of Prophets. The idea / concept of a ‘Nation State’ was and is associated with the rise of the modern system of states, often called the "Westphalian system" in reference to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). Modern Muslim countries are only about one hundred years old or younger and have no justification in Islam. Nationalism is an alien concept to Muslims – although we acknowledge where we come from we don’t have allegiance to the soil. Many countries were drawn up by 2 people: The Sykes–Picot Agreement was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East upon defeating the Ottoman Empire. The agreement was concluded on 16 May 1916.
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